Week 33 Weigh-in: Functional Fitness

Fitness or physical fitness is a general state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports or occupations. Physical fitness is generally achieved through correct nutrition, moderate-vigorous Physical exercise, physical activity, and sufficient rest.

It’s not how long we will live, but how well. You can be successful without Fitness, but your success may be limited. Fitness builds energy that makes it possible to live with more zing and power. It’s the pep you’ll need to really go after your passions and goals. Our bodies were meant to move — they actually crave exercise. Regular exercise is necessary for physical fitness and good health. Once you begin to exercise regularly, you will discover many more reasons why exercise is so important to improving the quality of your life.

Exercise reduces stress, lifts moods, and helps you sleep better. It can keep you looking and feeling younger throughout your entire life. A person who is fit is capable of living life to its fullest extent. It’s more than just fitness….it’s rebuilding your life to live to the fullest extent!

Checking the above, I think this should refute the excuses many give for not staying fit. Some come up with “I am slim“, “I am not sedentary“etc… and little by little their bodies rust away. I am addicted to staying physically fit and I will not compromise anything for it. When we talk of fitness we are not really referring to ripped muscles, macho body etc but the ability to even perform the day to day duties that makes life go on. For example, pulling object, pushing boxes, lifting kids, and even bending requires some form of fitness to be effective in this, unfortunately we have seen a lot of people get terribly injured performing this functions just because they are not fit.

There is an aspect of fitness called functional fitness, this includes moves that replicate the day to day activities, it is the exercising of both the upper and lower muscles such that carrying out daily duties like picking low objects, rising and sitting on a chair can be done with ease and avoiding accidents of any sort.

Functional fitness could be aided e.g. squats (picking objects), push-ups (pushing that table) and pull-ups (lifting), lunges (crossing/jumping over obstacles), step ups (using the staircase), and even a calf raise (raising your body to pick things higher than you). If you consider all these exercise moves critically, you will realize that they are more than needed to perform any daily activity, now tell me who doesn’t need to exercise not only to keep fit but also to stay away from injury?

Someone said “it is better for it to be WORN OUT than for it to RUST OUT”. It is better you to care for your body now, so that by the time it is old it’s fulfilled, than for you to be negligent now and allow it to rust without proper use. I love my body and I appreciate where I am presently, I have proved it over and over that when you exercise your body it is unimaginable the good things it can do for you. The twists and the turns and the bends becomes easier and injury-free, for example I did this exercise (see graphic below) yesterday and it was a great victory, I had never done it conveniently with proper form without wincing, now I touch my heels with ease.

It is however important to understand that everyone needs to be fit, either you are a body builder or a housewife or just your humble self. I have been in this fitness business to also know that you are not just building a body but a life, if you can be consistent both in diet and exercise it is easier to have this approach to other areas of life and the gains are immeasurable sometimes. When you understand the fact that in this weight loss journey there is “no pain; no gain”, it affects other areas of your life too. Nothing comes free in life [in fact the free stuff can become costlier at the end], you need to work for it to enjoy it.

I am leaving you with this workout for this week so that you improve on your daily routine.

I must have spoken too soon in my last week’s post “that I will maintain status quo”, although I meant having the high numbers of fitness minutes. Anyways I am maintaining same weight for this week at 165.4lbs. I am still happy with that because TOM doesn’t come without a top gain but here I am maintaining for the week under review, lol.

During the past week, I had perfect scores in the challenges and I even tried a new workout called Barre. Barre resembles the ballet dance and it was quite challenging and comfortable at the same time. I will see you soon, keep on keeping on.